The clocks have gone forward and with longer evenings and warmer weather infront of us - time to start thinking about the bbq.

It's usually the toppings that do it for me - which can be anything from raw onion, sliced gherkins, tom ketchup and english mustard, slice of emmental cheese to harrisa, sweet chilli sauce or salsa verdi depending on what the burger is made of.

Have been following a basic beef mince recipe for years with cream, a few herbs, garlic and onion. Looking to up my game in the burger stakes (no pun intended) and would love to get some new ideas for the summer.

A combination of lean beef and fatty pork mince with chopped chives rather than onions, a little chopped fresh mint, a little egg yolk and a shedload of black pepper for the burgers. Make into 100g patties.

BBQed medium.

Served with thinly sliced Wensleydale or red Leicester cheese, shredded iceberg lettuce, homemade mayo and/or my very own spicey tomato sauce*, and a couple of slices of beef tomato, all in a very briefly BBQed white, sesame seeded burger bun.

Washed down with a good robust Chardonnay, or a pint of room temperature IPA. In a garden.

Sliced tomatoes and raw onions - bit of cheese melted by the burger - had it in Ibiza when just turned 18 - first hoiliday abroad - had it for breakfast at about 11:30 am - along with bottle of san miguel and a fortuna ciggie -then down to the beach to see all the beautiful people in next to nothing - for a pale skinny young lad just out of an all boys school in SE London it was a good coming of age

This was layered with a roasted sweet red pepper and a couple of slices of stilton.

Sometimes I chop the roasted pepper and throw it in the burger mix. I would usually add fresh herbs (particularly basil) but I didn't have any last night. Other veggies I like to layer over the burger are grilled courgette or aubergine strips. Reading back through that, I guess I generally favour mediterranean-style burgers.

There's a really good lamb burger recipe in the Rachel de Thample book 'Less Meat More Veg'. I serve that with the avocado mayo recipe from the same book.

Lightly cook the mushroom and onion in olive oil, just until it's starting to caramelise.
Add the tomatoes, and heat until boiling. Turn down the heat, and add the sugar, stirring to make sure it's dissolved. Return to a gentle heat, and simmer for 2 or 3 minutes, stirring regularly, before adding the vinegar, worcester sauce and salt.
Remove from heat and blitz with a handblender, before pushing through a sieve into a bowl. Leave it to cool before putting into into a clean old squeezy ketchup bottle.
Yum!

Lightly cook the mushroom and onion in olive oil, just until it's starting to caramelise.Add the tomatoes, and heat until boiling. Turn down the heat, and add the sugar, stirring to make sure it's dissolved. Return to a gentle heat, and simmer for 2 or 3 minutes, stirring regularly, before adding the vinegar, worcester sauce and salt.Remove from heat and blitz with a handblender, before pushing through a sieve into a bowl. Leave it to cool before putting into into a clean old squeezy ketchup bottle.Yum!

Nice recipe Rikaitch! I do a similar one called Barbecue Sauce which is based on an Ainsley recipe and includes same ingredients plus tom puree, light brown sugar, tobasco sauce, white wine vinegar and english mustard. It has a nice smokey flavour to it.

And, good idea too keeping the old Ketchup bottle, funnily enough I almost kept one the other day so might have to get it back out of the recycling box.

A combination of lean beef and fatty pork mince with chopped chives rather than onions, a little chopped fresh mint, a little egg yolk and a shedload of black pepper for the burgers. Make into 100g patties.

BBQed medium.

Served with thinly sliced Wensleydale or red Leicester cheese, shredded iceberg lettuce, homemade mayo and/or my very own spicey tomato sauce*, and a couple of slices of beef tomato, all in a very briefly BBQed white, sesame seeded burger bun.

Washed down with a good robust Chardonnay, or a pint of room temperature IPA. In a garden.

Mmmmmmmmmm- No shame there NikD - any commission in it for promoting your blog? Will try the catsnip.

Why beef and pork? I'm a bit disenchanted with minced beef and spicy lamb burgers - don't know whether its the quality of the meat, my seasoning or just because I have eaten too many made to the same recipe but something isn't right.

Perhaps we should create the ultimate VN burgers? Veggie, lamb, chicken and beef.............

The reasoning behind the pork and beef thing is quite cunning. See, the flavour you're after is of BBQed beef, but it needs to be nice and juicy. If you use fatty beef, a lot of the fat will melt and run out, and although this will give good a flavoured burger from the smoke of it burning on the coals, it could make for quite a dry, crumbly burger, especially if you cook them well done. Pork fat, apparently, has a higher burning point, which means less will run out, leaving the burger nice and juicy, but pork fat also has less flavour than the beef, so it won't mask that lovely BBQed beef taste. That's the theory anyway, and it's a habit I've got into over the years when making burgers (I make pure beef ones if I'm going to be frying them in a pan, by the way).

Mate of mine goes one step further with his BBQ burgers, and mixes pure minced pork fat into lean beef mince, but I can't say as I could tell the difference.

The mint is quite important as it imparts a lovely fresh green herby taste; parsley will work well too.

I notice no one has mentioned the whole bacon issue; I think it's too much, it takes away from that great BBQed beef taste...

Edited by nikdevlin, 28 March 2012 - 04:01 PM.

I make mixes, some of which are quite good. My wife and I cook things too.

Top tips for the perfect burger have been taken away and testing has begun. Much, I think depends on your mood, and, ofcourse, it is all subjective but one ingredient which has been lacking in my burgers is pepper. This has made an enormous difference.

I would also dare to venture that the quality of ingredients i.e. the meat is essential and being careful to not overcook. Size and shape helps to and I have been "Mastercheffing" my burgers in a pastry cutter.

I am now the proud owner of a Spong & Co. No.26 ( "a machine which promotes domestic economy") so will be experimenting with my mince mix in phase II. It's a work in progress.

Gordon Bennett S L Railings! Not seen the programme but is this it? Enough to turn anyone veggie, especially the "I'm 95% vegeterians". Where's the deep fried onion rings? The Alma better up its game in the burger steaks stakes ;-)

I second the lamb/mint/feta burgers being lovely. We tried them last week and they were delicious.

They did exhibit the problem I always find with homemade burgers which is a tendency to fall apart (a dangerous liability on a bbq where there is no possibility of rescuing the bits). I only just managed to get them off in one piece.